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Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story review: a charming crafting RPG plagued by busywork Not quite Hamstardew Valley Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Riot Forge Developer: Lazy Bear Games Publisher: Riot Forge Release: February 21st 2024 On: Windows From: Steam , Epic Games Price: £20/€25/$25 Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-10300H, Nvidia GTX 1650, 8GB RAM, Windows 10 Riot Forge’s last stab at publishing smaller spin-offs from indie teams has resulted in Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story , which at first glance has all the things I love in self-proclaimed cosy games: gorgeous pixel art, laidback objectives and characters cute enough to trigger primal cheek-squishing instincts....

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is a fugitive roguelike fleet-builder from the makers of Crying Suns Cylon and thanks for all the fish Image credit:Dotemu I’d entirely forgotten about Battlestar Galactica . I wouldn’t say hearing the show’s melancholy singsong theme during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live gave me Proustian nostalgia pangs, but it did fill me with a vague desire to look up Gunstar mods for Homeworld . The game announcement in question was for Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes , a new tactical roguelite from the developers of Crying Suns ....

Beff Jezos Simulator lets you indulge in the fantasy that billionaires actually do any work I love fantasy games Image credit:JoyJutsu Games Picking things up. Putting the things in boxes. Setting prices. Managing employees. Wiping the sweat from your creased brow and knowing, even if your meagre salary doesn’t get you very far, at least you put in an honest day’s graft to acquire it. All things done by pathetic fools that don’t realise the true CEO grindset actually involves no-wifing Diablo 4 all day and subsisting entirely off the the Lucozade-bottled urine of overworked drivers forced to make the agonising decision between self respect and continued employment....

Best Battlefield 6 SGX loadout and build guide The starting SGX SMG is a beast in Battlefield 6 - here’s how to make it even better Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/EA Want the best SGX build in Battlefield 6? The starting SMG is a short-range monster, with a fast fire rate and decent damage. But it’s more versatile than you might think, and with the right attachments it can hold its own at mid-range....

Best deals for PC gamers today: Over 10% off prebuilt gaming PCs and massive savings on M.2 SSDs We’ve even got your home networking covered. Image credit:Skytech / Lexar Plenty on the list today, not just graphics cards or SSDs but full prebuilt rigs, cooling gear, and network kit as well. I’ve been browsing through it and there’s definitely stuff here I wouldn’t mind dropping into my own setup. There are some chunky savings on newer PCIe 5....

Best starter weapon for beginners in Monster Hunter Wilds These are the best weapons for beginners to try in MHWilds Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Capcom What is the best starting weapon for beginners in Monster Hunter Wilds? If you’re just now learning the sheer number of complex weapons that the Monster Hunter series has grown to offer, then know that it’s very common to feel overwhelmed. The combos, movesets, and systems that each Monster Hunter Wilds weapon employs is pretty dizzying when you’re just getting started....

Black Friday is here, and so is the best Steam Deck SSD at up to 50% off The Crucial P310 drops to £64 / $70 for 1TB Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun Happy Black Friday , I definitely don’t say with a gun pressed into my spine. These days, of course, Black Friday sort of just starts whenever retailers feel like it, which is why we’ve already seen the kind of Steam Deck microSD deals that I’d have normally spent this morning writing up....

Blizzard veterans reveal Darkhaven, a Diablo 2-style RPG that trades “incrementalism” for “bold, expressive loot” and destructible terrain “It’s not just about numbers fighting numbers anymore” Image credit:Moon Beast Productions Do you miss the good old days of Diablo, before Blizzard’s hellish clickfest megamorphed into a live service Beezelbub owned and operated by stinky uncle Microsoft? Be upstanding, perhaps, for Darkhaven – a new action RPG from a studio founded by a trio of Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 veterans, who have some questionable notions about weaponising volcanos....

Bloodborne and Lies Of P players should check out Withering Realms, an action-RPG with combat dolls and graveyards Unravel an occult 1920s Image credit:Moonless Formless One of my Xmas selection box games last year was Withering Rooms , a delightfully frightful haunted house action-RPG that balances mazey Metroidvania level design with the ability to be a witch who can supersize herself and gallop around on suits of magic armour. With a quick glance over my shoulder at our dear friend Sir Eugene Optimisation, I dare to describe it as a bit like Bloodborne , if Bloodborne had been made by a tiny independent developer....

Bloodshed is Vampire Survivors meets Doom and it’s a surprisingly moreish bloodbath A heady mixture of roguelike and FPS Image credit:Headup A long while ago I wrote about Vampire Survivors -likes needing to stop overwhelming you with visual clutter . I’ve since played a few games of a similar ilk that don’t hammer you with a chaos that’s impossible to dissect with your eyeballs. One of these is Bloodshed , an old school FPS take on the VS formula that actually works pretty well and did have me thinking the treacherous phrase “just one more run”....

Bonkers anti-immersive sim Mosa Lina now has co-op multiplayer, plus “super secret frog mode” Don’t worry, “non-super kinds of impossible places are still allowed” Image credit:Stuffed Wombat Released last year, Mosa Lina is a chaotic 2D platform puzzler full of bombs and frogs and spikeballs and tentacles, all subject to real-time physics. It’s an “aggressively random” response to what the developers call the “lock-and-key” philosophy of certain immersive sims. It’s also just been Major Updated, with new two player cooperative local and online multiplayer, various quality-of-life tweaks, new recording functionality, and a suite of gameplay changes or fixes to make Larian’s eyes water....

Build a blissful art deco sci-fi city as an AI mayor in Technotopia, out this October If only it weren’t for those meddlesome humans Image credit:Alawar If the recent Frostpunk 2 left you - haha, wait for it, ah this is going to be great, I’m so pleased with myself - cold (!!!!) then why not run your eye over fellow city builder Technotopia . Developed by Yustas and published by Wall World and Beholder outfit Alawar, it casts you as an AI mayor, Iris, who is trying to create the perfect city in a world of social and economic calamity....

Call Of Duty 2024 revealed as Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6, “a dark new chapter” The number, Mason Image credit:Microsoft Activision have celebrated my birthday in the traditional manner by announcing a new Call Of Duty game. Said Call Of Duty game is Black Ops 6 , “a dark new chapter” in the Treyarch-helmed FPS sub-series which is known for seedier and weirder, alt-historical or post-future stories featuring hallucinations and cybernetics and catchy period music....

Colossal Squigs all but confirmed for next Total War Warhammer 3 DLC, plus big new toys for Ogres and Khorne Upcoming expansions to be “focused on Immortal Empires specifically” Image credit:Sega The Total War Warhammer 3 team at Creative Assembly just put out a new video, shedding some light on what to expect for the strategy game’s next DLC and the game in general going forward. Upcoming expansions will focus heavily on the Immortal Empires megamap campaign, and there were lord and unit reveals for the Ogres, Greenskins, and Khorne factions that headline the next DLC - slated for the “back end of the year”....

Comically vast Helldivers 2 patch adds to the game’s Galactic strategy map while making stealth easier and armoured enemies fewer The long grass is now your greatest ally Image credit:Arrowhead Game Studios The latest Helldivers 2 patch is memorably titled 01.000.400, but for my money, it’s hovering on the brink of being one of your gold-varnished “X.0” updates of note. It adds a fair few mechanics and makes various substantial adjustments to Arrowhead and Sony’s liberty-humping, cheerily xenocidal squad shooter....

Connections hints and answers for Thu, August 22nd Need some Connections hints? Read our guide for help with Connections #437. Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NYT This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out the Connections hint for Wednesday 11th February ! Looking for a hint to help with today’s Connections puzzle on 22nd August? Connections can sometimes introduce challenging puzzles, more convoluted the more you look at them....

Connections hints and answers for Tue, August 20th Need some Connections hints? Read our guide for help with Connections #435. Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/NYT This guide is for a previous day! Looking for today’s solution? Check out the Connections hint for Wednesday 11th February ! Looking for a hint to help with today’s Connections puzzle on 20th August? If Connections has you ‘round the bends’, you’re not alone. We’ve set up a bunch of clues to help you guess along the way....

Control 2 will be an action-RPG, and the first game is getting a significant update in 2025 What even is an RPG these days Image credit:Remedy Entertainment Remedy’s Control 2 will be an “action RPG “, the developers have announced, and while I have already caved and written it up, I’m not sure this is really news. Wasn’t the first game an action-RPG? True, it was a third-person shooter, but it also had a progression system with unlockable abilities and boosts....

Cute fantasy Papers, Please ’em up Lil’ Guardsman is out now Admit or deny entry to a fantasy kigndom Image credit:Hilltop Studios Some indie hits create a legion of copycats, but others, not so much. I don’t think there are too many Papers, Pleaselikes, for example - perhaps for obvious reasons given that game’s grim subject matter. Lil’ Guardsman is a Papers, Pleaselike though - and a seemingly delightful one. You play as 12-year-old Lil, who is a substitute guard at the castle gate for a fantasy kigndom, and you must decide who to admit and who to deny entry....

Deathsprint 66 is Mario Kart by way of The Running Man by way of Squid Game Red shells with a lot more red Image credit:Secret Mode If you’re from the USA, Britain or France, and also possibly a Victorian time-traveller, you might be familiar with the dunce cap - a conical humiliation bestowed on struggling or misbehaving schoolchildren, who were then told to go sit in the corner and think about their sins....